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Privacy International's partner organisation, Bytes for All, has filed a complaint against the UK Government, decrying the human rights violations inherent in such extensive surveillance and demonstrating how the UK's mass surveillance operations and its policies have a disproportionate impact on those who live outside the country.

While such mass surveillance, in and of itself, is violative of human rights, that infringement is compounded where foreigners' phone calls, emails, or internet searches are intercepted as they currently receive even fewer legal protections than the communications of those who reside in the UK. In addition to violating Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which protect private communications, such disparate treatment is a violation of Article 14 that prohibits discrimination of all sorts, including based on nationality.
The Importance of Foreign Challenges to UK Surveillance

Foreign people and organisations, like Bytes for All, whose human rights have been violated can and should challenge these discriminatory regimes within the countries that engage in such surveillance. As both Bytes for All and Privacy International argue, when it comes to the interception of communications, the violation of rights occurs where the interception takes place.

Accordingly, every country owes the same obligation to each individual whose communications pass through their territory: not to interfere with those communications, subject to permissible limitations established by law. People who have had their communications intercepted, no matter their location or nationality, should be able to object to that interference in the courts and tribunals of the country that carried out the interception.

By doing so, these foreign complainants can not only vindicate their privacy and expressive rights, they can also highlight the discrimination inherent in surveillance programmes like the UK's. Such discrimination is often overlooked, yet the interception of foreign communications by the UK is not rare. In fact, via its Tempora mass surveillance program, the UK reportedly gobbles up the vast majority of internet and phone traffic that travels through undersea fibre optic cables that land in the UK.

As Bytes for All recounts in its complaint, these cables carry much of world's internet traffic, even where no party to the communication is located in the UK. For instance, Bytes for All has found that its communications are often routed through the UK when it accesses websites based in other countries, including the US, Ireland, Hungary, South Africa, and even its neighbour, India. Bytes for All's discovery highlights a worrying truth: No matter where you live, if you use the phone or the internet, the UK government could be intercepting your everyday communications even if the person you're speaking to is nowhere near the UK.

And the UK is not the only country undermining the basic human rights of foreigners through its surveillance practices. In its Eyes Wide Open Special Report, Privacy International puts the spotlight on the discriminatory nature of surveillance laws passed by every member of the Five Eyes alliance - the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These countries have essentially declared most communications that originate or terminate outside their borders to be fair game for interception.

The Five Eyes have generally deflected attention from this aspect of their surveillance regimes by focusing on the protections provided to their own citizens. But the information sharing that occurs among the Five Eyes alliance undermines those purported protections, making that discrimination even more sinister. The scenario emerging is as follows: even if the US cannot directly obtain its own citizens' communications without additional legal process, the UK claims the right to freely intercept communications of US citizens so long as those communications aren't sent and received within the British Isles. The UK then shares the information it collects with the US, giving the US unregulated access to its own citizens' data.
Update on Privacy International's IPT Claims

Both Privacy International and Bytes for All contend that the UK's mass surveillance programmes, such as Tempora, not only discriminate against non-UK nationals, but are also a fundamental violation of the rights to privacy and free expression. There is no clear legal framework in the UK governing the interception, storage and use of such vast amounts of information. Nor can such programmes ever be considered a proportionate response to a legitimate state aim. As such, the UK's mass surveillance initiatives violate the ECHR by impermissibly infringing on privacy and chilling free expression.

Privacy International's case is continuing in the IPT. As we identified from the start, the tribunal is shrouded by secrecy. As the case progresses, we intend to advocate for as much transparency and openness as possible. The legality of the UK's surveillance programmes is best vetted under the sanitising light of public scrutiny.

More from Pakistan

￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼It was found that there is a serious gap when it comes to addressing online harassment in individual cases and many women were not comfortable taking their complaints to the law enforcement agencies (LEAs).

Many journalists increasingly practice self-censorship, fearing retribution from security forces, military intelligence, and militant groups. Media outlets in 2016 remained under pressure to avoid reporting on or criticising human rights violations in counterterrorism operations. The Taliban and other armed groups threatened media outlets and targeted journalists and activists for their work.

Pakistan is among the countries that do not properly investigate and prosecute crimes against media professionals. Because of the near absolute level of impunity, most of the people who attack, injure or even murder media journalists in Pakistan remain free.

The Pakistani government has significantly expanded its communication interception activities. This Privacy International report covers the intelligence services plan to capture all IP-traffic in Pakistan and other initiatives, pointing to gaps in the laws governing surveillance.

This report is a baseline, a rst step for encouraging further advocacy eorts on the issue. We urge both the government and the civil society to take the challenge of addressing privacy rights as a serious and urgent priority towards ensuring the civil liberties of the citizens.

Access to Information:

More from Access to Information

The Report examines the progress countries have made since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals on implementing the commitment to make access to information available to all people in their countries.

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

In 2014 Cambodian journalists increasingly found themselves in the news, as reporters faced injury and even death for covering the news. 2014 proved the deadliest year for Cambodian journalists since the political turmoil of 1997, with two Cambodian journalists confirmed murdered in relation to their work and a third, foreign journalist found dead under suspicious circumstances.

While media freedom in Spain remains robust and certainly comparable to its European neighbours, at such a critical moment for the Spanish public there is a need to ensure maximum access to the free flow of information.

As the United Nations reflects on the future of global development and the post-2015 agenda, access to information must be recognised as critical to supporting governments to achieve development goals, and enabling citizens to make informed decisions to improve their own lives. IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, believes that libraries help guarantee that access.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 9 October 2014

The goal of this report is to provide African governments, civil society, researchers and other stakeholders with a tool that will guide and support the development and advancement of the right to information in Africa.

By their very nature, libraries are poised to become forces for social change and using this exhibit as an example, libraries themselves can show the life of their communities by putting their responses on display to support their involvement in social movements, engage others, and document for the future

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 7 March 2014

For the fourth consecutive year, the IPA and PricewaterhouseCoopers have carried out a global survey on the application of VAT on printed books and e-books. It reveals that much progress remains for countries to adopt a non-discriminatory, consistent tax regime for printed and e-books.

Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) is pleased to join the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) in launching a major global analysis of the development of the right to information (RTI) movement, broken down by region.

The government has enacted unnecessary restrictions on access to information about forest concessions and land claims. Authorities have harassed and intimidated local activists who have been bringing attention to forest sector abuses, and a number of environmentalists and activists have been arrested or prosecuted in recent months over plantation disputes.

Burma is at a crossroads. The period of transition since 2010 has opened up the space for freedom of expression to an extent unpredicted by even the most optimistic in the country. Yet this space is highly contingent on a number of volatile factors.

This publication is a component of the National Endowment for Democracy, (NED) funded project that has unearthed a dismal level of denial to disclose information in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government in Liberia.

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